ANKARA: Turkey’s unemployment rate edged down to 9.3 per cent in March-May, official data showed on Friday, a slight decline from 9.6 per cent in the same period a year earlier. The March-May average also represented a decline from the February-April period, when unemployment stood at 10.1 per cent, the data from the Turkish Statistics Institute showed.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s budget produced a deficit of 7.9 billion lira (Dh10.04 billion, $2.74 billion) in June, bringing the overall surplus to 1.1 billion lira in the first six months of the year, Finance Minister Naci Agbal said on Friday. The primary deficit, which excludes interest payments, was 5.7 billion lira, Agbal also said at a news conference.